Going Big Way In Horticulture

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 9

Going Big Way In Horticulture

The trend in vegetable and flower production in the United States was towards larger and more complex holdings, Professor T. M. Morrison, professor of horticulture at Lincoln College, said this week.

Professor Morrison, who has recently returned after spending five months at the State College of Agriculture at Cornell University in New York State, said that the trend was also towards larger and fewer buyers. For instance, a man who had 1500 acres in corn, carrots, pumpkins, cabbages and parsnips in the one holding, had told him that there were only 160 buyers of vegetables in the whole of America. These buyers were chain stores or vegetable processors. This was a dangerous situation which the American grower was fairly worried about The American growers’ organisations were not as vital as those in New Zealand, he said. They did not play a big part in the education and unification of the various horticultural industries as did the same organisations in New Zealand. Profesor Morrison said that the three departments of horticulture at Cornell concerned with vegetables, fruit and flowers differed from Lincoln in that they provided advisory services to the trade and this became a major part of their activities. No advisory, services were provided by the State Department of Agriculture. It was quite remarkable, he said, that there were no vacancies in these services although the salaries were proportionately no higher than salaries offered for the same officers here. The advisory officer was more of an educator than a servicing officer, because in America the servicing was done by the commercial firms. There had been a tremendous growth in the services provided by these firms.

Professor Morrison said he regarded this type of organisation as basically very sound. However, it was clear that the advisory officers took only a passing interest in the economic aspects of holdingsThey were more concerned with production. Horticultural education in the university was not as easily available as in New Zealand, he said. For instance, Cornell has no diploma courses and in America there were no apprenticeship schemes nor were there courses leading to the equivalent of the national diploma of horticulture. The only horticultural education outside the universities was in some senior high schools, apart from what extension officers tried to impart to grower groups.

Professor Morrison said that In the United States he had been wanting to see how horticulture had developed and to see its future place in the university.